The Winding Woods: Tales of a Boggle

by Dani Swanson

  "Oh, that's why you're moving so slow. Okay, I'll see you at lunch." Denisha headed out the door with her hair swooshing in the rhythm of her steps behind her.

  "Excuse me, Ms. Johnson? Can I look at your book for a moment?" The teacher was in the back of the classroom, with the principal talking about Meredith's trip to the nurse.

  "Yes. Go right ahead." The teacher barely looked her way; she was in the middle of explaining that there wasn't anything in the room that could have bitten her.

  Izzie went to the front of the classroom. "What are you doing, Iz?" Zyon said as he shimmied down her arm and made himself comfortable in the open pouch of her backpack.

  "I can't believe someone else has seen you." She whispered as she picked up the book.

  "That's not me." He said slyly through a yawn.

  "That's a boogeyman. You heard the teacher."

  "It is you!" Izzie snapped. She looked over her shoulder, at the teacher who was not paying attention. She remembered her saying that the books were not allowed to leave the class. Without hesitation, Izzie ripped out the page of the old book and placed the book on Ms. Johnson's desk. She folded the page quickly, shoving it into the pocket of her hoodie.

  Without making eye contact with her teacher, she made her way out of the room and headed to the gym. "I can't believe I have proof!"

  8: tales from 10th Grade English

  The fall air had started to creep in on the last of the warmth from the sun. Izzie zipped up her hoody as she picked up her pace down the sidewalk. It was already starting to get dark out. Even though she was sixteen, Izzie still didn't like to be out in the dark. She inhaled the cool air through her lips and smiled as it filled her lungs. The excitement of studying this unit made Izzie want to get home as soon as possible. She had her headphones in, so it always looked like she was taking on her phone when she walked, so she could have conversations with Zyon about her day.

  "It's amazing that someone else has seen you! Like there is documentation that you exist, and I'm not crazy!"

  "Kid, I've been telling you that for the past nine years. You're not crazy." He had his head sticking out of the zipper in her backpack as he batted away her untamed hair.

  "Isn't that what imaginary friends would tell a crazy person?" Izzie shot back.

  "Hmmmm. I guess you're not wrong. But I'm real. So, there is no need for that kind of talk."

  She snuck into her room without alerting her mother that she had made it home, quietly turning the knob as she shut the door so it wouldn’t click too loudly.

  She sat down and unfolded the piece of paper that Zyon had folded up and shoved into the pocket of her backpack. She was sure Ms. Johnson wasn't going to be excited to learn that she was missing a page of her book, that she knew from Izzie's previous discussion had obviously read that portion of the book. She glanced over to her desk and saw the few bills sticking out of the slot of her piggy bank; she knew she would be buying the book outright.

  The page showed a drawing of a little man with green tones to his skin. He had eyes were yellow and small, jagged smiling teeth. His head was much larger than his body, and his hair was a wild dark green mass that covered its ears. The wording next to it read: "The story of the Boogeyman doesn't have a specific origin – There is a version of them in every country and culture. They come in many shapes and forms. Most resemble a grotesque little man with green skin and crooked teeth, with yellow eyes. Closely related to that of a goblin. The stories told to small children, usually wanting to keep them in good behavior, are told of children being stolen out of their closets or from under their bed in the middle of the night when they are naughty. They move into shadows of the moonlight, taking those children and disappearing to never be seen or heard from again. The Boogeyman always moved seamlessly through the night, never getting caught, or seen, but their image is always passed down from generation to generation as the fear monger."

  "So, how do you fit in with the Boogeyman? I don't understand when you tell me you're not the boogeyman, but you look a lot like the drawing that Ms. Johnson showed us in class." The girl folded her legs underneath her as she sat on her bed; she laid down the paper Zyon had her read and started hugging a pillow as she watched his small figure pace around the edge of her bed.

  "You know how words change when you go from place to place, and people understand them as being the same word? Like when you went on vacation with the family, and you went down through the southern states, and they asked you what kind of soda you wanted? Or what kind of Coke? But you call it pop. That's the difference between a boggle and the Boogeyman."

  Her eyes grew large as she was comprehending what Zyon was telling her. "So, what you're saying is that you are the Boogeyman?! Did you kidnap me from my home? You said you were protecting me!" Her voice started to get louder as she got more and more upset.

  Zyon placed his figure to his mouth and was trying to get the girl to quiet down. "Your mom is going to hear you! Hush up! She's going to try to put you on the meds again."

  She quickly brought her voice down to an almost whisper again. "Zyon," she took a deep breath. "Are you the Boogeyman? Did you kidnap me?" The trepidation in her voice was thick. "I want you to tell me the truth – I've felt crazy most of my life because no one can see you but me." Both the excitement and fear were causing her breath to be trapped in her throat. She didn't know if she was finally going to get the truth out of Zyon, for the first time in her life.

  "I told you – I didn't kidnap you. You were placed in my care, and I had to find a human to raise you, away from the danger that is after you. You need to let me finish. You know how you like Coke more than you like Pepsi, but they are both called a pop – but are different. That's how Boggles and Bogeymen fit together. The same but still different. The boogeyman stories that they don't know are that there isn't only one of them… it's boogeymen and boogeywomen. They are my cousins. Boggle is derived from bogle, which is where they got boogey from. The name changed the more we tried to move away from each other. We didn't want to be associated with them and changed our names to boggle. I take after the gremlin gene pool. I like to collect shiny things, coins, and rare finds." He hopped off the bed and pulled out his wooden box, pulling the lid open to show the treasures he had collected over the nine years that she had been in the house. "I collect stones, not children" He smiled at her, showing his yellowed pointed teeth.

  Slowly she returned the smile to Zyon as she watched the glittery pieces of fake jewelry reflect in his eyes as he examined samples of his stash; he seemed the happiest when he was playing in her old jewelry box. "Hmmmm, I suppose you do like shiny things, more than you like me."

  "Huh?" Zyon said as he slowly shut the box, hiding it under the pile of shoes in the back of the closet. "I love you like you were my own child, you silly girl."

  Zyon climbed up on the bed and hunkered down next to Izzie. He laid back against her pillow with his hands behind his head. "You better study – I'm going to catch a couple winks before you go to bed for the night." He immediately closed his eyes, though sleep seldom came to him as he would jump awake at any sound that he heard.

  "You can sleep when I go to sleep…." There was a knock at the door.

  "Yes?" Izzie nervously jumped up from the bed and started to the door. She opened it to find Nathan on the other side. She leaned against the door jamb as to hide her room.

  "Who are you talking to in here?" He had one elbow raised as he leaned against the frame, peering into the room. He forcefully pushed on the door, letting himself in.

  "Just talking to myself, like always." She awkwardly said as she plopped back down on the bed; Zyon left the bed and started to the closet, where he usually hung out while someone was in her bedroom.

  "You're so weird sometimes."

  "Did you want something?" Izzie didn't like that her brother called her weird. She got it from everyone else, but he used to treat her like she was normal.

  "I was bored and wanted to see if you want
ed to play some video games or something?" Nathan gave her a little smile. He still made it a priority to check in on Izzie – even though he was almost 18 and they rarely hung out anymore.

  She opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by Frankie growling into the small opening in the closet. He must have snuck into her room when Nathan came in. Izzie got up to shut the closet door, but Nathan beat her to it, allowing the cat to go in to explore. Frankie's hair stood on end as she sniffed the treasure box that the boggle was sitting behind.

  Izzie could hear the soft growls of Zyon coming back to the cat. Usually, Zyon would make himself visible to the cat, but he couldn't scare her away with Nathan standing in the doorway.

  "Get her out of there! Come on." Izzie pushed Nathan to the side with her hip and shut the door to the closet after scooping up the cat. Frankie was visibly upset and scratched Izzie's arm as she tossed her out of the room.

  “That cat loves you, but then always freaks out at your closet. Why is that?”

  Izzie shrugged him off.

  Nathan had made his way over to Izzie's books on her bed as she was dealing with the cat. "I took this class when I was in 10th grade. It's pretty interesting to hear where all the stories are from." He paged through the book and noticed the ridged tear where the page on the boogyman was supposed to be. "You know that mom and dad are going to have a fit when they get the bill for this book." Nathan held up the creased page that was lying on the bed to Izzie.

  "I got it like that." Izzie's face grew hot when she lied. She could never hide it.

  "Is this what he looks like?" Nathan asked nonchalantly, holding up the boogieman; he did not make eye contact as he continued paging through the rest of the book.

  "What are you talking about?" Izzie's cheeks grew redder as she found her eyes darting over to the closet door. She could see the tiny shadow of Zyon's feet on the other side.

  "That "invisible friend" that is hiding in your closet?" He made air quotes with his hands as he spoke. "The one that Frankie tries to hunt whenever you're in your room."

  "Ha. Funny. I'm supposed to be the crazy one that believes in weirdo things." Her nervous laugh wasn't helping the situation as she made her way back over to the bed to retrieve her schoolbooks. "You know, Nathan, I have a lot of work to do for class tomorrow. I better get back to my reading."

  Nathan moved his hand away and continued to read the backside of the paper. "Oh, it must be a gremlin – what did you use to call him when you were younger? Zyon, was it? It says gremlins collect treasures and keep them for themselves. Is that why you have all that random stuff in the box?" Nathan smiled at Izzie, trying to get her to open up.

  "What are you talking about? Gremlins aren't real; it's just fairytales. See?" Holding up the front of the book, she waved her free hand over the golden inlaid letters, adding a little dramatic flair to the attempted sell of her lie.

  "Iz, I've been in your closet before. I've seen your treasure box." He gave a smirk before darting over to the closet. He was much faster than Isabelle was and made it to the door first. He swung it open and grabbed the box off the floor. "You've added to it – some pretty rocks, some coins, looks like a few stud earrings that are missing their match. Fascinating stuff."

  Tears of frustration started to burn in the corners of Izzie's eyes. She felt trapped and didn't know what to do to get out of this situation. "Why are you teasing me? You know I'm not supposed to talk about it anymore. You know I'm a weirdo, just let me be." A couple of tears rolled down her face as she could see Zyon looking at her through the closet door opening. He felt the pain that she was feeling.

  "You nerd, I'm trying to tell you that I believe you. I sat outside your room for the past half hour and listened to your side of the conversation." Nathan went over and placed his arm around her shoulder. She nervously flashed Zyon a look.

  "Now? You believe me now? Why never before?"

  He made his way over to her desk, sat in the chair, and started to pull down her pictures throughout the years.

  "I watched this documentary last night that showed paranormal activity on it, and you're not the only person on earth that has an invisible friend. Strange stuff has always happened around you, Izzie. Then they showed a girl that had a sunspot looking thing in every picture she ever took. Even in the dark! It dawned on me that this has happened to you too. When you were brought to our house, you wouldn't shut up about this Zyon creature that you saw, and your drawings look just like the little guys on your paper there. See, look at this!" He pointed at a few pictures that showed the bright spots of light on her shoulder or near her ankles. In each image, the light was only near her. Izzie swallowed hard as she didn't know how to answer him. "Then, when you left for school today, I brought Frankie in here. She was fine. She walked around and sniffed everything, but she didn't freak out like she does when you're in here. And she never freaks out on you! It's always a random shelf or in the closet when you're here. That's when I found the box and started digging through it. You're always whispering to yourself. And I remember that weird night when we were camping outside. I finally believe you."

  Izzie’s brain was racing. She didn’t know what to do. She quickly darted her eyes from Zyon and back to her brother. Her breath quickened. Her heart started to pound in her chest. Zyon shook his head and tried to get Izzie’s attention, but he knew he was losing her as her eyes were now locked onto Nathan’s eyes.

  "You do?" Her voice was timid and was barely above a whisper when she spoke. She ignored Zyon's plea to stop from within the closet.

  "I want to see it. Is it here?" Nathan leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. He grasped his hands together in excitement.

  "He. Zyon is a he." She nervously looked over to the closet.

  "Will you shut up! They're going to lock you up!" Zyon was pleading with her. She grabbed the folded-up paper and brought it over to Nathan. He sort of looks like both of these. They are his cousins. He's called a boggle, which is where the word boogyman comes from."

  "How do you see him?"

  "Zyon, will you show yourself to him? Please? I've never had anyone believe me before."

  "No! Stop it!"

  "If you don't show yourself to him, I swear I'll start taking the pills that they want me to take. I'll give in." Nathan watched nervously as his sister argued with what appeared to be the air.

  Zyon came out of the closet and kicked Izzie in the shin. She fell forward in pain as she rubbed her leg. "You need to stop this! You're out of control!"

  She picked him up by the back of his shirt and held him up to her eye level. "Please forgive me, but I need someone to know I'm not crazy."

  She brought him over to the desk and grabbed the dry shampoo bottle she had there, coating him in the white powder. The powder filled the room with a flowery smell as Izzie emptied the entire container over the boggle. Every nook of his face could be made out under the residue. For a moment, before he shook his body like a wet dog – sending the loose bits flying across the room, the ordinarily invisible frame of the boggle was very much visible to Nathan.

  Nathan jumped to his feet with excitement. He almost swallowed his tongue as he covered his mouth when a yelp escaped his lips. "Oh, my goodness! I saw him. I freakin' saw him!"

  "Shhhhhh. You can't be loud about it. Mom will hear you!" Izzie scolded as she gently placed Zyon on the bed. A rush of relief ran over her as she felt the eutopia of finally knowing that what she sees is real. She gently wiped her tears from her face with the edge of her sleeve as she went over and hugged her brother.

  "What have you done?!" The husky voice of Zyon was coming out in sporadic breaths. "Humans cannot know about me! How many times do I need to tell you this?"

  "If you would just have shown him yourself, I wouldn't have had to do that! Do you know what it's like to feel like you are completely crazy? Like no one believes anything that I say because "Izzie is nuts!" and sees little green guys running around."

  "No, I can see him now
…..I can hear him too." Nathan cautiously was watching from the desk as Zyon was pacing back and forth on the bed.

  "If you tell anyone, and I mean ANYONE, I will kill you. I will have the shadows take you in the middle of the night, and you'll be gone. Do I make myself clear?" Zyon started to do something that Izzie had never witnessed before. He began to grow in size as he walked toward Nathan, to the point that Zyon was more significant than her 6'2" brother. Nathan swallowed hard as he nodded at Zyon. "Izzie, I told you, you can't show the human's anything of magic. They have to believe that it's just magic in a fairytale book. You need to stop this nonsense now before something bad comes of this." His voice was calm, soothing her as a dad would speak to a scared child. "No one else. You have your validation." He shrunk back down to his average shin-high stature that he had in their world, climbed the covers of her bed, and lay down on the pillow.

  "I'm sorry, Zyon. But thank you for understanding."

  "You don't have to worry about me telling anyone. Everyone will just write me off as crazy too." Nathan said with a shrug. Zyon glared at him from across the room. It was very apparent that he was not amused by the brother any longer. The room fell eerily silent.

  "Now, you two go have dinner with your family and act normal, before I decide to eat Nathan's eyeballs for my dinner." He pulled down his cap over his eyes as he got comfortable for a nap. "Nathan, you better not let anything happen to her while I catch up on my sleep. You swore to protect her, remember?" Zyon waived his pinky in the air. Nathan knew that wasn't a joke, as he nodded at Zyon before leaving the room with his sister.

  9: boggle spit

  "Did you hear?" Denisha came running up to their lockers. Her arms were full of bolts of fabric for the theatre group meeting.

  "Did I hear what?" Izzie gently picked up a sleeping boggle out of her locker, placed him in with her books, and zipped her backpack closed.

  "Meredith is in the hospital! That mysterious bite she got gave her some sort of weird blood infection that the hospital had never seen before. She's getting a blood transfusion and may not be back in school at all this year. They're shutting down the school to investigate what might have gotten her. We get to go home! I'm going to work on the costumes for the play. What a great day!"